Symbolism

In the short stories "A Sorrowful Woman" and "The Hand" the authors challenge the convention of the fairy tale ending through the use of symbolism. In "A Sorrowful Woman" instead of the happy family that always solves their problems with a good family discussion, the mother/wife slowly isolates herself from her family and eventually takes her own life. Her slow downfall begins one night when she stands naked in her room while her husband takes care of her. In literature the shedding of clothes usually symbolizes freedom from society or rebellion. This woman is not your ideal housewife and the shedding of her clothes conveys her breaking out of that perfect stay-at-home-mom mold. In "The Hand" the woman thinks she has found her happiness in a marriage like in so many typical fairytale endings. But during a night's sleep she sees something in her new husband she has never seen before and becomes very fearful. The symbolism is more blatant with the author referring to the sleeping husband's strong hand as a "red monster." This "monster" possibly might be a manifestation of all the woman's fears resulting in her marriage to a man she barely knows.